What do we mean by “Political Law”?

Political law, as we use the term around here, describes a vast universe of legislation, regulation, constitutions, and case law – all the many rules that govern the government and every person who seeks to influence, control, or join the government. That legal universe is filled with galaxy-sized subjects like the conduct of elections and the rules of voting, redistricting and reapportionment, ballot access and running for office, a giant mass of campaign finance rules, and rules for forming and running political parties, or PACs and their kin, or all the other kinds of nonprofit, tax-exempt, and other organizations needed for effective political work. Permeating that whole legal cosmos is the wide field of First Amendment law that establishes our most fundamental political rights – the right to speak, to associate and assemble, and to petition our government for change.

Take, for one example, the “simple” act of petitioning. What can be done with a petition where you live? Can you put candidates on the ballot? What about putting a change in the law or state constitution on the ballot? Who can be the petitioner – a single individual, or do you need more than one, or do they need to form a committee of some kind? Who can circulate the petition? Can they be paid, or from out of state? Do they have to wear a badge or be a registered voter themselves? Who can sign the petition? Do they have to be registered voters, or members of a political party, or from a particular place to be eligible? What about the petition form itself – do you make your own, or get one from the government, or is there some kind of approval process? When can you start, and how long have you got? Can you raise money for it, and if so, how much and from whom? How do you turn the petition in, and what happens after that? What happens if the petition is denied? Do you have a grace period to fix problems like bad signatures? To whom do you appeal if the petition is unfairly denied? As you can see from this isolated example, even seemingly simple actions can begin to seem impossible when they raise so many difficult questions.

Add to this that we don’t just have federal rules on all of these subjects, but separate rules in every single state – and in most places there are also county, city, or district-level rules and regulations on top of all of that. And all of those rules are constantly changing. Legislatures pass new laws, elections officials issue new regulations, and courts issue new holdings on these subjects practically every single week. What you thought you knew yesterday might not be any good any more today or might be struck down by a court somewhere tomorrow.

The accumulation of all these difficulties means that real political participation for the average person seems too hard, like it’s too much risk and bother and not even worth trying. Meanwhile, our country’s politics continue to be dominated by those who are wealthy enough to employ battalions of specialized lawyers and accountants, experts in navigating the difficult paths to political power for those who can afford them.

Our aim here at RMPLI is to help ordinary, working-class people overcome that domination by training activists how to find, understand, and use the law they need for whatever goals they’re trying to reach. We hope to foster a community of informed and confident activists all over the country, people who can echo our work in their own local communities, becoming subject-matter experts on the rules that apply where they live and passing along to their neighbors the know-how needed to make the world a little bit better. The universe of political law is gigantic and complicated and constantly changing, but here at RMPLI, we believe we can get through it together.